KTM faced its first public hiccup on Friday at Valencia, when Pol Espargaro’s bike was fitted with its tenth engine.
This took the rider beyond the permitted allocation, and he will start Sunday’s race from pit lane as a result.
As a “concession team” in its first season, KTM is permitted nine engines per rider, as against the standard seven.
Espargaro’s ninth engine was deployed at Motegi; the tenth was fitted in FP2 at Valencia.
Although the team should by rights have informed Race Direction, but in fact went ahead without doing so, the sanction is the same – to start the race “from the pit lane five seconds after the green light is on at the pit lane exit.”
Second Red Bull KTM rider Bradley Smith has yet to fit his ninth engine. Almost all the other riders have used their full allocation.
Pol Espargaro, Valencia MotoGP 2017